(Venice 1556–1618)
The Nativity,
indistinctly signed lower centre: PE... AL...MBRA... O,
oil on canvas, 191.5 x 246 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Mauro Lucco for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

This previously unpublished painting, signed by the artist on the stone step beneath the Madonna, is an important addition to the oeuvre of Pietro Malombra. Born in Venice, Malombra became a pupil of Giuseppe Porta called Il Salviati, only later, gradually drawing closer to the Venetian grand manner of Tintoretto and Palma Giovane. Although at present only very few certain works of his are known, Marco Boschini included Malombra in sixth place among the ‘pittori delle sette maniere’ – that is among the ‘painters of the seven manners’ – the term coined by the scholar to identify those artists that shared a common inspiration in the great works of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese (see M. Boschini, Le ricche minere della pittura veneziana, Venice 1674).

According to Lucco this work belongs to Malombra’s full maturity, specifically around 1615. During this period Malombra had been employed on a series of important commissions at Padua, where in about 1610 he supplied the Saint Stanislaus Altarpiece for the chapel of the Polish Nation in the Basilica del Santo. The present painting can also be compared to the Christ and the Adulteress in the Národní Galerie, Prague (inv. no. DO 4277, 122 x 181 cm) with which it shares a similarly monumental composition, as well as the identical placement, and kneeling pose of the figures of Mary and Christ respectively.

Malombra was principally a painter of altarpieces and mythological works. He was closely involved with the large-scale restoration of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice following the fires of 1574 and 1577 for which he supplied many canvases, including those depicting Innocence, Concord, Equity and other Virtues of the Magistrate, all for the Sala dell’Auditor Nuovo of circa 1608. However, the majority of the paintings attributed to him in the documents have been lost or remain unidentified. Likewise, his drawings have survived in limited numbers, but those that are known clearly reveal his talent (see A. Palma, Disegni di Pietro Malombra, in: Arte Veneta, 1984, pp. 72–78).